Can you turn off Google reviews for your business?

Ascent Vision · Published October 24, 2026

Not as an owner. Google's help page on managing reviews, as of October 2026, covers reading, replying to and reporting reviews, with no setting to turn them off. Google itself may temporarily disable reviews for certain profiles or business categories. Removing the profile does not clear them either: Google says reviews remain, while the owners' replies are permanently removed. What works instead is replying calmly, reporting reviews that break Google's policies and asking every customer for one.

What Google's help pages say

Google's page on managing customer reviews covers reading reviews, replying once the business is verified, and reporting a review you believe breaks Google's content policies. It says reviews are available only in certain countries or regions and for certain business categories, and that availability may change over time.

In the Google pages cited here, when reviews are switched off, it is Google that acts. Its page on missing or delayed reviews says Google might temporarily disable user-created content, including reviews, for certain profiles or business categories to protect business owners, and that reviews and ratings will be removed and disabled for profiles primarily categorized as educational institutions for students aged 6 to 18. Its restrictions page says that if an owner breaks its fake engagement policy, Google may block new reviews or unpublish existing ones for a set period.

Why removing or restarting the profile does not help

Google's page on removing a Business Profile says posts, photos, videos and review replies by owners and managers are permanently removed, but "User-generated content and review remains". As general advice, that is the worst of both: the reviews stay and your replies to them go.

A fresh start usually does not reset them either. Google's page on moving reviews says not to create a new profile because of a change in location or ownership, that reviews remain when a business gets a new owner or manager but keeps its name, and that reviews remain on a closed profile. It says customers can still review a temporarily closed business, though not a permanently closed one.

What an owner can do instead

Reply to reviews briefly and calmly, for the customers who read them later; the related answer on how to respond to a negative Google review covers what to say.
Report a review that breaks Google's policies, such as spam. Google asks owners not to report a review just because they disagree with it; the related answer on getting a fake Google review removed covers reporting and the one-time appeal.
Keep asking every customer as each job ends, by text only with the person's consent. Google's policy does not allow a business to discourage negative reviews or selectively ask customers for positive ones, and it bans offering incentives in exchange for a review. The related answer on getting more reviews the right way covers how to ask.

If reviews vanish or stop

When reviews disappear, the reason often lies with Google's checks or the review itself; the related answer on why Google reviews are missing goes through the reasons Google gives. Facebook works differently, as the related answer on removing or turning off Facebook reviews explains.

Sources

SEO for service businesses

Get found on Google by the people already looking for what you sell, in the places you serve, and see which searches turned into inquiries.

See the service Work with us